I didn't think I'd get to the end of the second book in the trilogy and have to ask this question:
Spoiler:
What's the point of the Chandrian? They want to stay hidden. So they killed K's troupe because his father spoke their names too often. They smoked the wedding because the family had a vase. But what do they actually do other than protect their identity? One is leading the bandits in the woods...why? Almost no one believes in them, and that's okay because they don't seem to be doing much. As dark lords go, they seem rather lazy. Maybe it's just that the geopolitical world-building through two books is almost non-existent, and we don't get much of a sense of their machinations. So much so I can't say for sure there are any machinations.
On the other hand, it seems to me that Kvothe is "supposed" to do something terrible, or something heroic that will have terrible consequences for him personally (Denna?). Folks are trying to push him toward that fate -- and maybe that's what the Chandrian are up to? So the guy is leading the bandits around in the woods for no other reason than for Kvothe to show up and take one more step toward his unspoken doom? And Kvothe, in the present, has figured this out, and he feels the only way to avoid that is by not being Kvothe -- by being Kote instead.
It's all very interesting. Before the hero embarks on the "hero's journey," there's supposed to be a "refusal of the call." Maybe the "refusal of the call" is the resolution of Kvothe's story, rather than its beginning?
Someone up-thread mentioned Lost, and I get some of the same vibe here. I'm torn between thinking the "real story" (the epic) is cleverly buried in the subtext and thinking the joke's on me for believing there is a "real story."
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Cameron Haley
)
Bookmarks